Study a Verse

• Those who fervently seek material sense gratification are gradually pushed down into a miserable condition of life because as soon as one even slightly violates the laws of nature, one must suffer sinful reactions.
• Thus even materially alert and ambitious persons are constantly in anxiety, and from time to time they are plunged into great misery.
• Therefore both the fool and the devotee may be said to be peaceful, in the sense that they are free from the ordinary anxiety of the materially ambitious person.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Grief and dependence → Detachment. The temporary world becomes a source of spiritual instruction.

Chapters 7–9 of Canto 11: The avadhuta's twenty-four teachers. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 9: Detachment from All that Is Material

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The avadhūta brāhmaṇa learned from the foolish, lazy child that by becoming free from anxiety a person becomes capable of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead and experiencing supreme ecstasy. The instruction received from the young girl who kept just one conchshell bracelet on each wrist is that one should remain alone and thus steady one’s mind.